Astros searching for more than quantity as trade deadline approaches

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The rebuilding club’s former No. 2 starter recently became a reluctant, frustrated reliever.

Veterans on short-term deals are still receiving significant playing time on a struggling team that lost 5-4 to the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday and exited Busch Stadium 27 games below .500 with just three contests remaining before the All-Star break.

But despite season-long expectations the Astros will be heavy sellers before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline and conventional baseball wisdom saying at least a few moves should be made to shake up a directionless team, general manager Jeff Luhnow has been saying since mid-June that the 2013 trading season will be much different than 2012.

The Astros were volume dealers last year. Carlos Lee, Wandy Rodriguez, Brett Myers and J.A. Happ, among others, were shipped away as the club exchanged its remaining high salaries for a multitude of minor leaguers. The quality-for-quantity approach added depth to a once-depleted farm system while helping slice the Astros’ 2013 payroll to an MLB-low $21 million.

With young talent such as All-Star catcher Jason Castro, second baseman Jose Altuve and righthanded starter Jordan Lyles – who faced the Cardinals on Wednesday – beginning to establish the big league foundation of the Astros’ future, the club is viewing the 2013 deadline with an eye on getting at least 80 cents on the dollar, instead of the full-roster flip it was willing to undergo in 2012.

“Because we feel like our minor league system is fairly well-stocked, we won’t be looking for quantity in return,” Luhnow said. “We’re really going to be focused …